Perhaps she’s that rare woman not offended by being called catty. Going by the name “Nano,” she’s a young Norwegian lady who claims she wasn’t born in the right body. No, she doesn’t think she’s a man, but believes she’s of “the wrong species” and is really a feline. Writes New York’s Daily NewsDaily News:

The 20-year-old known as Nano said she possesses a slew of catty characteristics like ultra-sharp hearing, laser night vision and fierce aversions to both dogs and water.

“It's also obvious that I'm a cat when I start purring and meowing,” she said in a YouTube video that has racked up more than 300,000 views. “And walking around on four legs and stuff like that.”

Nano said she first realized she was a cat when she was 16 years old. Doctors found a “genetic defect” in her DNA, she said — which she believes proves she is a cat.

“Born in the wrong species,” she said. “My psychologist told me I can grow out of it, but I doubt it.”

The 20-year-old did not elaborate on the “defect” or provide any proof that her DNA matches that of a cat. She looks entirely human, but she wears a cat-ear headband and a fluffy stuffed tail to help her inner feline match her outward appearance.

But Nano said her personality and psychological features prove that she is more feline that [sic] human [video below].

Whether Nano is sincere or merely seeking publicity, what’s for certain is that in this time where self-image is reality, she’s not alone.

For example, the same day the News related the above, it also reported, “They’re gr-r-ross.... [S]ome super-excited fans have been harassing Frosted Flakes mascot Tony the Tiger, sending him sexually explicit tweets and hitting on him in bizarre and unexpected ways. Furries — adults who dress up in animal costumes, sometimes for sexual purposes — have been asking Tony for everything from X-rated pics to a little lovin’.” Then there are “Otherkin” (video below — warning: some bad language), “people who identify as partially or entirely nonhuman. A dragon, a lion, a fox — you name it — there is probably someone out there who feels like they are more these things than they are human. The otherkin community can be found lurking on Reddit, Tumblr, TV Tropes, and other online forums,” as Vice explained last year.

And vice does epitomize our time. A “body modification fan” named Ted Richards — who already had more than 100 tattoos, multiple body piercings, and demonic-looking horns on his head — had the outer parts of his ears surgically removed so he could look more like his pet parrots. Then there’s Malcolm Brenner, who reported that he had a six-month consensual sexual affair with a dolphin; employing the rare rationale of a rationalization masquerading as eshewal of rationalization, he said about his initial attempts to resist the dolphin’s “intentions” that he thought to himself, “‘If this was a woman, would I come up with these rationalizations and excuses?’”

Of course, these two men aren’t saying they’re of another species. But that’s not the case with Sarah Rodriguez, a.k.a. Wolfie Blackheart, who claims she’s a canine. And we could wonder, if she and Nano met and there were a dust-up, could anyone rightly call it a catfight? Many other jokes suggest themselves here, but the reality is that this is no laughing matter. Psychologists define this “going animal” phenomenon as an actual disorder: “species dysphoria.” And in an age where disorders often morph into “lifestyle choices” and feelings are confused with facts, it raises some serious issues.

Consider: There’s also something known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), which is, writesMedical Daily, “a rare, infrequently studied and highly secretive condition in which there is a mismatch between the mental body image and the physical body” (video below). It usually manifests itself in sufferers wanting to amputate or remove a healthy limb or organ, or paralyze themselves in some way; one woman blinded herself on this basis, some have self-amputated, while yet others have found doctors willing to perform the amputations. It seems that it can be classified as a type of “body dysmorphia” and is defined by strong feelings that something is wrong with one’s body — feelings that are certainly real.

Now, most would say that wanting to have healthy organs (such as eyes) removed is crazy and that those genuinely believing they’re a dog or cat are no different from psychiatric patients insisting they’re Napoleon or the Queen of England. Sure, their feelings tell them those things — and their feelings are wrong.

But if this is true of species dysphoria, what about “gender dysphoria,” which is also essentially “a mismatch between the mental body image and the physical body” (in this case, it’s the sense that you’re stuck in the body of the wrong sex)? If it’s crazy to want to remove healthy eyes, what about removing healthy genitals? If we don’t have to consider a girl a cat just because she claims that identity, why do we have to consider her a boy just because she claims that identity?

Yet just as with Bruce Jenner, if “Nano” claimed not to be a cat but a boy and you refused to play along with the delusion, you’d be called names. Daniel Greenfield addressed this issue at Frontpage Mag, writing that as with “transgenders,”

Like most newly minted civil rights groups, Trannies are intolerant of Transpecies Americans accusing them of only pretending to think that they're cats and playing the old, "How dare you compare your pain to my pain and your imaginary identity to my imaginary identity" game.

Men who claim that they were really born women based on their personality insist that the idea of men who claim they were born cats is just nuts.

"Trying to legitimize your “species dysphoria” is despicable and insensitive to people with gender dysphoria," one site says. "Denial of a biological link to sexuality/gender-identity is harmful to all queer (LGBTQI) people."

Identity is apparently only in the mind, until you encounter people whose identity is also in the mind and make your mind identity look stupid.

"Someone please give me a legitimate hypothesis that could pose an explanation for a human being thinking they are non-human, other than a simple obsession with the animal/creature in question, or mental illness [the site also states]."

Oh the irony. The irony. Also hate crime. And intolerance.

The site mentioned above speaks of “a biological link to sexuality/gender-identity,” but note that there’s no medical test whatsoever for making the “gender dysphoria” diagnosis; rather, it’s based on the patient having strong and persistent feelings of “cross-gender” identification that last for at least six months. Feelings — that’s it — just as with species dysphoria, BIID, and everything else. And physicians perform the body mutilation euphemistically known as “gender-reassignment surgery” on this basis.

So here’s our day’s message: “Trans-speciesism” is nuttiness; “transgenderism” is a legitimate status. Doctors amputating healthy legs are quacks; those amputating healthy genitals are healers. Body dysmorphia gets you psychological treatment; gender dysphoria gets you special treatment. And a girl claiming she’s a cat is crazy, but claiming it’s crazy for her to say she’s a boy is hate.

What’s truly crazy is a society that tolerates such contradictions.

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